The Kaohsiung (LCC-1), a US-built tank landing ship, is being decommissioned after just shy of seven decades in service with Taiwan’s navy, a military source said yesterday.
A retirement ceremony is being held tomorrow for the Kaohsiung, first commissioned as the USS Dukes County (LST-735) in April 1944, in Kaohsiung, the source said.
Assigned to amphibious assaults in the Pacific theater during World War II, the LST-542-class ship was first decommissioned by the US in March 1946, then reactivated in November 1950 for service in the Korean War.
Screen grab from Mr. Huoli’s YouTube channel
In 1957, the Republic of China Navy took ownership of the ship and renamed it Chung Hsi (中熙, LST-219). It was renamed the Kaohsiung after it was outfitted as an amphibious command ship in 1962.
The ship has spent the latter years of its service as a test vessel for the military’s top research institution, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, to develop indigenous naval weapons and radar systems.
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